I didn’t have any real issues with Liddy Dole. Well, other than the fact that she hasn’t really done anything during her Senate tenure. Now she’s bringing the fear-mongering to a whole new level by attacking her opponent, Kay Hagan, for meeting with (gasp!) nonbelievers.

On September 15th, Kay Hagan is heading to Boston, Massachusetts to attend a fundraiser for her Senate campaign. What may surprise mainstream North Carolinians is that the fundraiser will be in the home of leading anti religion activists Wendy Kaminer and her lawyer husband Woody Kaplan — who is an advisor to the “Godless Americans Political Action Committee.”

Oh dear! Anti religion activists? Not so much.

Kaminer is also an advisory board member (Woody is the chairman) of The Secular Coalition for America which is “the national lobby for atheists, humanists, freethinkers and other nontheistic Americans with the unique mission of protecting their civil rights.” (Secular Coalition For America, Press Release, 1/16/08)

Kaminer’s husband, Woody Kaplan, is also an advisor to the Godless Americans Political Action Committee which sees itself as a counter-force to religious groups in public policy debates.

That darn Secular Coalition for America – wanting to protect civil rights for all Americans, even the ones of nonbelievers. How dare they do something as un-American as try to uphold the principles of the Constitution!

“Kay Hagan is trying to run a campaign in North Carolina that casts her as a moderate but the money that’s paying for it is coming from the left-wing fringe of political thought,” said Dole Campaign Communications Director Dan McLagan. “You can tell a lot about a person by their friends and these are friends most North Carolinians would not be comfortable having over for dinner.”

….

“Kay Hagan does not represent the values of this state; she is a Trojan Horse for a long list of wacky left-wing outside groups bent on policies that would horrify most North Carolinians if they knew about it,” McLagan said. “This latest revelation of support from anti-religion activists will not sit well with the 90% of state residents who identify with a specific religious faith.”

Emphasis mine.

I’m going to assume, for the sake of charity, that Mr. McLagan is just tragically ignorant rather than a raving bigot. So for clarification: nontheists are united only by their lack of belief in a personal god. Any other label you try to attach to us won’t work, because we’re an extremely diverse bunch. I’ve met atheists of all political leanings (yes, including Republican). I know of at least one nonbeliever working for Dole’s campaign as a volunteer. To paint us all as “wacky left-wing” just reveals the depth of Mr. McLagan’s epic misunderstanding of nontheists.

I shouldn’t have to remind Senator Dole that her duty is to represent the interests of all North Carolinians, not just the ones with which she agrees on matters of religion. Her press release just convinces me that she is unwilling to fulfill that duty.

But did you know that 86% of Americans say they believe in God? Since we all know that 86 out of every 100 of us are Christians, who believe in God, we at Kieffe & Sons Ford wonder why we don’t tell the other 14% to sit down and shut up. I guess I just offended 14% of the people who are listening to this message. Well, if that is the case then I say that’s tough, this is America folks, it’s called free speech. None of us at Kieffe & Sons Ford is afraid to speak out. Kieffe & Sons Ford on Sierra Highway in Mojave and Rosamond, if we don’t see you today, by the grace of God, we’ll be here tomorrow.

Wow. It’s a great big bucket of wrongity-wrongness.

First, not all Americans who “say they believe in God” are Christians. You know, like Jews, Muslims, Mormons, Hindus, etc. So this ad insults more than just atheists – it insults all non-Christians. But have a feeling that whoever decided to make this ad would have no problem telling people of other religions to shut up as well.

Second, it is the height of irony that this guy is invoking his right to free speech in telling another group that they should not speak freely. Sorry, pal – it doesn’t work that way.

Third, despite the blustering, we all know that they would have no problems taking money from a non-Christian. Given their financial woes, it’s not as if a Ford dealership can be choosy about its customers.

It seems that he was specifically barred, on threat of arrest, from attending an advance screening of Expelled. Expelled from Expelled!

But that’s not the best part:

I’m still laughing though. You don’t know how hilarious this is. Not only is it the extreme hypocrisy of being expelled from their Expelled movie, but there’s another layer of amusement. Deep, belly laugh funny. Yeah, I’d be rolling around on the floor right now, if I weren’t so dang dignified.

You see … well, have you ever heard of a sabot? It’s a kind of sleeve or lightweight carrier used to surround a piece of munition fired from a gun. It isn’t the actually load intended to strike the target, but may even be discarded as it leaves the barrel.

I’m a kind of sabot right now.

They singled me out and evicted me, but they didn’t notice my guest. They let him go in escorted by my wife and daughter. I guess they didn’t recognize him. My guest was …

Dawkins: Go to a museum and ask to see, for example, Tiktaalik.
John: OK!

A note for John: if you think that the theory of evolution is a steaming pile of bovine excrement, you are allowed to do so. But if you think you’re going to win a debate about evolution with an evolutionary biologist, prepare to get smacked down.